


Here We Are and Alakazam

by letsprayitwritesitself



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-15 21:22:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsprayitwritesitself/pseuds/letsprayitwritesitself
Summary: Harry Potter AU filling another prompt on the tumblr. In which Jack and Davey fall in love at Hogwarts, even amidst all of the terrible things that keep happening there.





	1. Triwizard Tournament

Davey knew, logically, that there was no way he could really be hurt at this thing. He was far enough away that he could enjoy the thrill of the event without being nervous (for himself, that is, the kid that was down there was another matter entirely.) But all the same, there was a fucking dragon there.

He would have been content to hear about it from his friends after it happened, head full of fantasies of how quiet the library probably was, how he’d be able to get at the herbology book he’d been coveting for weeks - but they’d forced him out, stressing how historic this tournament was, and how much he’d regret missing it. He didn’t tell them that actually, he’d missed a lot of historic events before, and he was really quite alright with it. For his part he’d made them stand at the back (although he was sure that if a dragon really wanted to hurt them it wouldn’t be put off by the extra fifty feet or so it had to travel.)

‘I wonder how they’re meant to pull this off?’ Albert squinted out into the field, trying to assess what the poor bastards taking part had to deal with. ‘Do they get any help?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Davey had read up a little on these tournaments. ‘I think the point is they’re meant to be able to come up with their own way.’

‘I couldn’t do it, ya know. I’d piss my pants and cry for a really long time, til everyone went home.’

‘That might work.’ Davey raised his eyebrows. ‘The dragon might feel sorry for you and let you win.’

‘Maybe I should have entered my name after all!’

They were interrupted by a short Gryffindor wielding a wad of parchment. 

‘You guys want some action?’

‘I’m sorry?’ Davey couldn’t unpick this guy’s phrasing.

‘Good odds on Potter and Diggory. C’mon, let’s liven it up.’

‘It’s already pretty lively, I think.’

‘Give it up, Race,’ another Gryffindor appeared behind the kid and affectionately pulled on his friend’s woolly hat. ‘Them Weasley boys have monopolised the game.’

‘Rats.’ Race tucked his betting slips under his arm.

Davey turned back to Albert. ‘I was about to complain about being cold but I don’t want to tempt fate.’

‘I don’t think the dragon cares too much, Davey.’

‘Hey, I know you.’ Race’s friend butted in. ‘Albert, you’re in my potions, right?’

‘Right! What’s up? Davey, this here’s Jack Kelly. He’s the kid who exploded the Confusing Concotion in Snape’s face in second year, oh my god.’

Davey nodded in greeting, vaguely remembering hearing the story. Jack smiled and reached out his hand to shake Davey’s. It was at that moment that the dragon decided to show the world what a bad mood it was in, and blast a stream of fire over the entire stadium. Davey gasped, and ducked - because _there was a fucking dragon there_ \- and if he happened to accidentally squeeze this stranger’s hand, well, that was probably entirely understandable.

Because of the _fucking dragon_.

Jack grinned and raised his eyebrows but he didn’t pull his hand away. If a cute stranger needed him to protect them, he’d be there.

‘Sorry,’ Davey muttered. He dropped Jack’s hand and looked towards the arena, where the first competitor was coming out to somehow fight the _god damn dragon._ ‘Apparently dragons make me anxious.’

‘It’s no problem.’

Race and Albert, sharing a look, stepped away so Jack and Davey were standing next to each other. They all turned their attention back to the action. Cedric Diggory looked tiny among the rocks and the dragon had apparently noticed him going for the golden egg. This was terrifying. Davey jumped at every movement down there and, after only a few minutes was watching through his fingers. Cedric was shooting curses to try and distract the creature and they were almost working - not well enough for Davey to be anything less than petrified. A shocking near miss involving a badly timed leap from the champion saw him jump and physically look away.

He felt a nudge from next to him and turned to see Jack smiling and offering his hand.

‘Might help?’

He looked down at the hand and back up at Jack. Part of him wanted to defend himself, say he didn’t need protecting, that he wasn’t even scared - but a way bigger part of him, a very _sensible_ part of him, was on edge, and grateful for the comfort.

And Jack was pretty.

He took the had and held it tight. None of the champions died, and the protective stranger turned out to be good company. Jack managed to supply witticisms to offset the tension of what they were seeing, and Davey appreciated it as much as he appreciated having a hand to squeeze when things got edgy. Even if he’d just met the guy, comfort was comfort.

At the end he let Jack’s hand go with only some reluctance, cringing at the white imprint his fingers had made on Jack’s skin.

‘Sorry. And thanks.’

‘Don’t mention it.’ Jack flexed his hand (it was only moderately painful.) Students around them were emptying the arena fast. Albert and Race started to head off in different directions. Jack took a couple of steps backwards, following Race. ‘Maybe I’ll see you around?’

‘Maybe you will.’ Davey smiled, almost daring himself to ask Jack _when_ he might see him around, but panicking at the last moment. He headed away with Albert.

Race stared, incredulous, at Jack. ‘”Maybe I’ll see you around?”’

‘Didn’t wanna come on too strong!’

‘You just held his had for almost two hours, Jack.’

Jack glanced back over his shoulder and caught a fleeting moment of eye contact with Davey who was doing the same.

‘It’s a good start, isn’t it?’

/

Davey went to watch the next task with Sarah. Again, he had been planning on staying in and studying, even with the potential draw of handsome strangers offering to protect him from danger. At the same time, he may or may not have been keeping an eye out for Jack Kelly in the week since they had met, and he hadn’t spotted him once. He might not even be at the event, and if he was, there was no guarantee Davey would see him.

Like he had even thought about it. 

But Sarah had cornered him at breakfast and told him categorically that they were going on a sibling date to check out the foreign kids in their bathing suits. They ambled down to the hills to take a sailboat into the lake, clad in their big coats and knitted hats, using the opportunity to catch up.

‘What happened to the little kid who used to come and find me every mealtime, huh? Haven’t seen you in weeks.’ Sarah aimed a light kick at him from across the boat. Davey smiled as he remembered how scared he’d been of starting at Hogwarts.

‘I guess I thought that you’d be able to introduce me to people, but you weren’t as cool as you pretended to be.’

‘Excuse you! I happen to be very popular… among… my friends.’

‘You’re right, I’m very sorry, Sarah.’

‘I actually do have some exciting developments in the gal pal department. You know Katherine from seventh year?’

‘I know Katherine from seventh year.’ He clambered out of the boat up to the stand, reaching in to help her up.

‘I’ve been _getting to know_ Katherine from seventh year.’ She grinned, pushing him towards the crowd. ‘We spent all day together in Hogsmeade last weekend and then we had an accidental sleepover by the lake.’

‘Ew. I’ve heard enough.’

‘Not like that, gross! But I _am_ feeling really good about her.’

‘Is she not here today?’

‘No, she’s on _press duties._ How cool is that?’

‘That is cool. In fact, maybe too cool. Definitely too cool for you.’

‘Luckily she hasn’t realised that yet.’ She poked him in the chest. ‘Your turn.’

‘What?’

‘Anything on the horizon?’ They found a place at the front and Davey leaned over the railing, letting the cold air whip his face, trying to decide if “I met a hot guy a week ago” was sufficient gossip for Sarah.

‘Not really.’

‘Your pause was very telling, Davey.’

‘It’s nothing. There’s no-one.’

‘You’re not getting out of it that easy!’

‘Davey!’ He heard the voice over his shoulder and for a split second he was glad of the distraction, before he realised who it was. Oh boy. He turned to see Jack heading over. He smiled in greeting, ignoring Sarah’s raised eyebrows. ‘You look cold.’

‘Yeah, it’s the… cold.’ His cheeks turned even redder as Jack reached out and touched one gently. 

‘Better than almost being set on fire, I guess.’

‘A lot of things are.’ Jack stood next to him, leaning on the rail, looking at Sarah. ‘I’m Jack.’

‘Sarah.’

‘Not crashing a date or something, am I?’

‘Not at all. This here’s my baby brother.’ She grinned at Davey, who had managed to blush harder.

‘Bet you could tell me some stories, huh?’

‘Depends what you wanna know.’

Davey cleared his throat. ‘Guys, it’s starting.’ He didn’t want their conversation going any deeper - he knew what Sarah was like. She loved him a lot but god, she liked making him squirm. 

The four champions stepped forward and a distinct impressed mumble passed through the crowd. Jack took a few seconds to rake his eyes over Viktor Krum and his tiny red shorts, and piped up. 

‘I’m gayer than I thought.’

Sarah, just barely hearing, was captivated by blonde hair and lycra.

‘Me too.’

/

During breakfast the day before the first task, an owl dropped a handwritten note into Davey’s porridge.

_How about we meet at the last task on purpose?_

It was complete with a little moving doodle of cartoon-Jack valiantl protecting cartoon-Davey from a dragon, a drawing that might have been embarrassing were it not, you know, true. All the same it made Davey chuckle quietly, and he pulled out his quill to scribble a _yes._ Hanging out with Jack at the second task had been fun, even if Davey felt like an asshole for letting Sarah be turned into the third wheel. Jack was funny, making quips about what the mermaids might have stolen from him, and how he’d go about trying to do the task (transforming into a giant squid and fucking up everyone and everything until they handed Crutchie back to him with an apology note.) 

At the end when Katherine came over to find Sarah, having finished composing her report, Jack confessed that he’d lost his friends when he spotted Davey, so the two ended up sharing a boat back to the castle. It had all seemed to get very… date-like, something Davey was totally fine with of course, but he was a little reticent in acknowledging it, in case he’d misread all the signals. Even now, telling Jack that he’d like to go with him to the last task, he didn’t want to let himself get too hopeful about the two of them, telling himself that it was still a good thing that Jack wanted to hang out. Even without any… intentions.

He gave the note back to the owl and watched as it soared across the great hall, over to the Gryffindor table he’d spent so long looking for Jack at. It flew all the way to the end, by the door, and he sat up as straight as he could to spot him.

Jack was sitting at the very end of the table, backwards, which went some way to explaining why Davey had never been able to spot him before. He was talking animatedly to a kid at the Hufflepuff table, one who had similarly turned his back on his own housemates. Davey recognised him, it was the kid everyone called Crutchie - he assumed it was an affectionate nickname, but he couldn’t be sure. Now he had found Jack, he watched him read the reply, felt the violent sting of butterflies in his stomach when he saw Jack say something to Crutchie, and Crutchie react with sheer delight.

Then Jack looked over his shoulder and caught Davey staring. Crutchie waved. Davey blushed, obviously. But he smiled too.

They met by the front door and walked across to the arena in the twilight. Davey itched to reach out and take Jack’s hand but even though they’d been there and done that, it would have felt like an enormous assumption. He took his cues from Jack, the more confident of the two, who was interested in using the cold weather to his advantage. They found decent spots towards the back.

‘Who d’you think’s gonna take this?’ Davey asked as they stared down at the hedges.

‘As much as I wanna say one of our guys, I kind of want it to be Krum. But I think that’s just me falling for his charm.’

‘Is that your type?’ This felt like a very brazen and un-Davey thing to say, but he saw a tiny window and had to leap through it. Jack pretended to think about it for a moment.

‘You know, I’m not sure. I’m starting to think I prefer someone a little taller. Little cuter.’ He looked at Davey. ‘Little smarter.’

‘How do you know how smart he is?’

‘I know how smart you are. Odds are he don’t match up.’

Davey looked at the ground to hide the grin that forced it’s way on to his face. Jack bit his lip, shuffling from one foot to the other.

‘Sorry, that was too corny. You can tell me to stop it.’

‘I don’t really want you to stop it.’ He looked back up at Jack. The air was full of excitement. Student babbled incoherently around them, and suddenly they’d both admitted something. They were quiet amongst the chaos for a moment and it was Jack who, with a smile on his face, started to lean in.

Cheers exploded around them as they kissed for the first time and they took a couple of seconds to pretend it was for them, riding the high of what sounded like a Hogwarts victory, with their own personal wave of elation. It only lasted a moment, more sweet and searching than anything else. 

Their resultant dopey grins fell quickly as they heard an anguished scream from the field. Something was wrong.

Reflexively Davey reached for Jack’s hand, seeking that comfort, as he tried to figure out what was going on. The news of Cedric’s death travelled up to them via murmurs in the crowd and catalysed the wave of unease that the castle wouldn’t shake for months, that contradicted fiercely with the new happiness Jack and Davey had found, and yet that gave them more reason to cling to each other.


	2. Dumbledore's Army

Jack had laughed out loud when the sign had appeared. _Boys and girls are not permitted to be within eight inches of each other._ Davey had laughed too, a little nervously, even when Jack had reached under his cloak and squeezed his ass. The decrees were funny because they were ridiculous, but they still signalled something disturbing. Like, yeah it was funny that she was only policing the straight kids, but she shouldn’t be trying to police anyone at all.

He spoke quietly to Jack on their way out of a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

‘It feels like they’re trying to keep us weak and unprepared.’ He unconsciously found Jack’s hand and squeezed it tight as they walked. ‘We all know that something bad is about to happen and they’re not even letting us feel safe.’

‘You sure it’s not just grandma being old fashioned?’

‘She’s from the ministry. It can’t be a coincidence.’

‘Maybe they’re just underestimating us.’

‘I hope so.’

That night in the library Jack had promising news.

‘I was talking to Hermione at dinner. Turns out you’re not the first one to think that the ministry’s screwing us over.’

‘What did she say?’

‘There’s a few of them. Want to practise real defence instead of just learning about it. What do you think?’

It wasn’t at all in Davey’s nature to rebel against authority but he did kind of find it thrilling. First the meeting in The Three Broomsticks, where he could finally offload his anxieties to people who thought the same, and then their sessions in the room of requirement, where he got to stun the cocky smile off his boyfriend’s face. He found it a little difficult, at first, not wanting to accidentally hurt Jack, but he got over that fairly quickly once Jack started taunting him.

‘It’s okay if you can’t bear to hurt me, babe, I understand.’ He grinned at Davey, standing opposite him with his hands on his hips.

‘I think you’re underestimating me, _babe.’_ Davey raised his wand and aimed it at Jack, taking a step back to ground himself. Jack bit his lip and looked him up and down as he lifted his own wand.

‘You’re pretty sexy when you’re trying to be-’

‘ _Stupefy!’_

Jack soared backwards about ten feet, his compliment stopped in its tracks. He landed with an _oof_ on his tailbone and Davey took a second to be jubilant at the strength of his spell before realising he might have broken his boyfriend. He hurried over and offered Jack his hand to pull him up, cupping his face, trying to see if he was actually hurt.

‘I’m so sorry, Jackie, are you okay?’

Jack said nothing, leaning in and resting his forehead against Davey’s, breathing heavily. Davey stroked his cheek, waiting anxiously for a reply. When Jack finally spoke it was in a low, seductive tone.

‘Oh, you’re on, Jacobs.’ And he backed away, pointing his wand at Davey with a wry smile. Davey sighed with relief, raising his wand, only a little nervous at what Jack might do next.

He fired up a shield charm that Jack’s _expelliarmus_ reflected off, and shot back his own _flipendo_ which Jack dodged. He heard Jack aim a tickling charm at him and rebounded it, thinking that he should have known better than to try and one up his asshole boyfriend. Both keen to disarm the other, they shouted _expelliarmus_ at the same time and the spells met in the middle, struggling to reach their intended targets, lighting up the boys’ faces in red as they fought to keep focused. Jack was staring at Davey’s face but Davey couldn’t look, knowing that if he looked at Jack for too long he’d give up.

The spell grew powerful between them and they started attracting a crowd. Davey’s arm started to ache from holding his wand up for so long, but again, as much as he knew Jack was stronger than him, he wasn’t about to admit it.

‘Dave, if you beat me in this, we’re breaking up, alright?’ A tinge of fatigue crept into Jack’s voice but he still had that smile on his face.

‘You think that’s gonna make me crack?’

‘You’re looking a little tired, that’s all I’m saying.’

‘I’m fine, Jack. It’ll take more than that to get me to give up.’

‘More than me dumping you and asking Dean out instead?’

‘Oh yeah. Go ahead, you’d make a great couple. I’m not letting you win.’

‘Well, I can go for hours, babe, I thought I showed you that much last night.’

That was it. The students around them erupted in cat calls and wolf whistles, and Davey cringed, losing focus enough that the spell hit him square in the chest. His wand flew out of his hand, and the force knocked him down to the floor with a bump. Somehow he was too distracted by Jack’s very true but very inappropriate comment to feel that much pain. He covered his face and groaned.

‘Hey.’ Jack knelt down next to him, pushing his arm away from his face and pulling him into a sitting position. He handed Davey back his wand. ‘You put up a good fight, Jacobs.’

‘If I’d known, Kelly, that making lecherous comments was part of duelling, I’d have done some very different research.’ 

‘Now _that_ sounds like something I definitely wanna help with.’


	3. Patronuses by the Lake

Moonlight glistened off the surface of the lake and a cool breeze caressed them where they sat watching it. Davey was nestled between Jack’s legs, leaning back against his chest, gripping a blanket so it was snug round them. Jack was resting his chin on Davey’s head, free hand stroking his arm, breathing in sync with him. Their patronuses frolicked ahead of them, lighting them up in white, Davey’s lioness affectionately headbutting Jack’s horse, which nuzzled it in return. 

This was one of the better things to come out of the whole sense-of-impending-doom. Having learned how to conjure patronuses in the DA meetings was something to be really proud of, despite what they were meant to be up against. Davey was incredibly fond of his, had been from the moment the silver wisps started to form into something real. It was like a companion, one that he had to summon his most buoyant happiness to conjure, and it stood for something pretty exceptional. It was a beautiful manifestation of a whole generation of kids standing up for themselves, proving their worth, and he could get addicted to how protected it made him feel. 

His had come a lot easier than Jack’s. Jack said it was because he had more happy memories to choose from, but Davey thought that you just needed one really good one. Davey had succeeded first when he thought back to standing on the platform at Kings Cross ready to start his third year. How his mother had squeezed him in a hug and whispered _we are so proud of you._ How that had just struck him dumb, that she’d managed to acknowledge the whole reason he tried so hard at school, just so he could feel like he was doing his parents proud. The happiness had swelled inside him in an alien way that he had always remembered.

They’d had long talks about it, when Harry had introduced the topic of patronuses to the DA meetings. They’d spent evenings telling each other the high points of their lives, confessing which moments they’d tried to use but that hadn’t quite worked, like Davey remembering when Les was born, but knowing that as a six year old his love for his new baby brother had been tinged with unfortunate jealousy. Jack had thought that he might be able to use the day his letter came, because he’d been so overjoyed that all the weird accidents he’d caused, the ones that had forced him to move from foster home to foster home, actually meant something positive rather than that he was an irredeemable fuck-up. This memory had almost worked, letting out a modest silvery stream.

One night they had been the last to leave practise, dawdling as the other kids headed back to their rooms. It was hard, being in different houses, because it meant that the bulk of the time they got to spend together had to be in public. This was great, fine, it made for fun afternoons out on the grass with their friends, surreptitious hand holding and note passing in the library, loaded eye contact across the great hall, but sometimes (a lot of the time... most of the time...) they just wanted to be alone. So this quiet February evening they waited until everyone had cleared out of the room of requirement. Davey was talking to Harry by the door, thanking him for his time, and Jack sat on the desk by the window, staring at the translucent glass. When Harry left, and the two were alone, Davey wandered over, footsteps echoing in the vast silence of the room. Jack didn’t acknowledge him.

‘What are you thinking about?’

It looked like Jack was focusing hard on something. His brow was furrowed. He sighed.

‘It’s kind of fucked up that I can’t think of one happy memory.’

‘Jack...’ When Jack had visited Davey over the summer he had let Davey hear where he had come from, what he’d been through, whispered into the humid darkness they’d shared hidden under Davey’s sheets. How his experiences had formed who he was and how he fought every day not to be a victim, because even so he knew how much he had compared to other kids. He tried hard not to let it affect him but on days like this, where his past manifested as an obstacle to him learning an important defence spell, it was difficult not to get upset by it.

‘I mean. I have happy memories. Obviously.’ He finally looked at Davey. ‘I just. I thought I’d come out of the other end of all that.’

‘I know. But we have so much happiness ahead of us, right?’

‘Yeah, but.’ Jack pulled a face and let out a whine. ‘I want it _now!’_ Davey smiled and took one more step so he was standing right in front of Jack. He rested his hands on Jack’s knees. Maybe now was the right time to get this thing off his chest.

‘I believe in you. What you’ve already done is still pretty amazing, and the rest is going to come soon, I know it.’ He took a deep breath in. ‘And I love you, by the way.’

Jack seemed to seize up. His hands, which had been idly playing with Davey’s tie, stilled. His breath caught. Before too long he would confess to Davey that he’d never actually had someone look him in the face and say those words, which is why he acted like such a dork when it happened. He stared at Davey, eyes wide, cheeks red.

The silence was maddening. Davey tried to read Jack’s reaction. He _thought_ it was a positive one, but he couldn’t be certain. He felt compelled to say something.

‘I’m not just saying that ‘cause - ‘cause you’re sad. I, um, I realised about a week ago. When we were in Hogsmeade, and you gave me the last bite of your chocolate frog. Even though I know you really like ‘em. I just thought - and like, the snow, and your nose was all read. And I kinda realised how in the last eight months I’ve been with you you’ve just shown me in so many different ways how special you are, and how considerate and kind and funny, and I should have told you straight away but wow, big deal - like, I mean, I think it is, and I kinda shocked myself, so I just. Didn’t. Say.’ He forced himself to pause. ‘Are you gonna say something?’

‘Yeah.’ Jack cleared his throat, dropped Davey’s tie, picked up his hands. ‘I love you too, Dave. Freaks me out a little. But I do.’ Davey sagged with relief, his face growing hot.

‘Freaks you out?’

‘I feel like. When you love something - or when you say it out loud, you kinda... jinx it. It’s dumb. And it’s not true. But I’ve never been able to shake it.’

‘It’s not dumb.’ Davey knew what Jack meant. Or rather, he knew why Jack would think it. ‘But we’ll prove it wrong, right?’

‘Right.’

The next week in practise Jack’s patronus took them by surprise. Davey’s was growing stronger as he started to understand how to keep it there, how to concentrate, and he was focusing so hard on it that when Jack’s soared through the air and galloped round him in a circle, it took him a second to realise what had happened. When he heard people congratulating Jack, he dropped focus, his lioness disappearing, and whipped round to find his boyfriend, who was already staring at him with a grin on his face.

Being able to cast patronuses, making themselves fully embrace their happiest memories, on top of that euphoria that rose up whenever they remembered those _I love yous_  was a welcome antidote to the nagging tension of inevitable chaos that the wizarding world seemed to be spiralling towards. Murders were frequently reported in the papers, kids at Hogwarts kept receiving terrible news over breakfast, and even the muggle world was subject to the inexplicable malice of dark wizards. It made everyone cling a little tighter to each other, smile a little bigger, celebrate the good news when it came. Davey and Jack had now made a habit of spending a couple of evenings a week down by the lake, trying to grab on to their waning school years, keeping each other as constants as they plunged into an unpromised future. This night they were staring their seventh year in the face, heads full of N.E.W.T.s and career prospects and the loss of the security of Hogwarts, so Jack’s suggestion of practising their patronus charms had led them to a welcome and necessary distraction.

Davey stopped his first, lowering his wand, watching the lioness fade away followed shortly by Jack’s stallion. He turned his head for a kiss, craning his neck to reach Jack.

‘We should probably get back soon.’

‘I don’t feel like it.’ Jack placed several tiny kisses on Davey’s neck, his jaw, behind his ear.

‘Me neither. But it’s late. Curfew.’

‘I can’t believe we’re almost out of this place.’

‘We still got a year.’

‘But think how fast the last few years have gone.’

‘I know. We’re gonna need to start making some plans soon. Jobs, places to live.’

‘God, stop it, don’t remind me!’

‘Wait. Jack. Serious.’ Davey shifted round a little so he could look at Jack. ‘Do you think - when we’re out of here - you wanna try and find a place? You and me?’ Whenever Davey looked to the future, Jack was always there. That was to say that he didn’t accept any timeline where Jack for any reason disappeared from his life. He craved the comfort of having Jack agree with this out loud, despite being fairly sure he felt the same.

‘Yeah. I do.’ They kissed again, short and sweet, mouths smiling too wide. ‘On one condition.’

‘What?’

‘We leave the curfews here.’

‘I promise.’ Davey got up first, not letting himself think too much about how warm and cosy Jack’s embrace was, and reached out to pull Jack up. Jack wrapped the blanket round Davey’s shoulders and used it to pull him in for a kiss, one which only lasted a couple of seconds before movement in the sky over the tower caught Davey’s eye. He took a step back and pointed up.

A skull had formed in the clouds, jaw hanging down, mouth open in a void. Someone in the castle had conjured it. Davey’s heart sank, his stomach twisting.

‘Let’s just get back to our dorms.’ He grabbed Jack’s hand and they took off back towards the castle, jumping at any movement in the trees, petrified by how vulnerable they suddenly felt in their special place. It was only a five minute walk back to their rooms but the grass stretched out endlessly in front of them.

Safely through the front doors they stopped to catch their breath, letting out nervous laughter in an attempt to diffuse the potent fear. Through the corridors to the staircases, they were almost at the point where they’d have to separate, but Jack spotted a number of kids hurrying downstairs through the darkness. They followed them out into the courtyard, nervous curiosity piqued.

‘Jack.’ Race caught them as they joined the crowd at the back. He stood in his pyjamas, a shivering Spot huddled close to him. That was how they knew something was wrong - Spot letting go of his tough facade in front of this many people was a big deal. The night felt weird and wrong.

‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s Dumbledore. He’s dead.’

At the front of the crowd Professor McGonagall lifted her wand, lit up. Another person followed suit, then another, then another, until the entire mass of students including a terrified Davey and Jack, had forged enough light to drive the darkness away. For now.


	4. Battle of Hogwarts

‘Jack, I know you want to fight. And I know it’s our duty, and I know that all of us are stronger than him and his army - but I swear to god. If you don’t come out of this thing alive, I am going to be... _so mad at you._ Okay?’

‘Listen. We’re going to be fine. We got stuff to do, right? These guys aren’t gonna take away our future, not if I can do anything about it.’

‘Right...’

They stood in the Great Hall ready to fight alongside Harry, and the Order, and the rest of Hogwarts. The night had arrived, the one they’d been training for since their fifth year - and while the whole time this knowledge had been floating around inside their heads, that what they were up against was pure evil, to be staring their opposition in the face was a new kind of terrifying.

McGonagall had made it clear that not everyone had to fight, and the prefects had led those who weren’t, out to safety. It was a weight off Davey’s mind to see Les heading away with them, even if it had been after the most difficult farewell of his life. Les had, like the rest of the student, come down to the Great Hall to see what all the commotion was, and stood with the boys in his house, clad in his dressing gown. When McGonagall had told the students that they could fight, he wove his way through the crowd to where Davey and Sarah stood.

‘I wanna stay and fight.’

‘You can’t, kiddo.’ Sarah wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. ‘You’re not old enough.’

‘So?’

‘ _So_ it’s dangerous, and we’d be too worried about you.’

Les hid his face in Sarah’s sweater, dropping the concern he’d had all year about appearing cool in front of his new friends. ‘Then you guys have to come with me.’

‘They need us here.’ Davey put a hand on Les’ shoulder, waiting a second until his brother looked at him. ‘Listen. You’re gonna go to Hogsmeade with everyone else - find Crutchie, you remember Crutchie, the prefect? He’s gonna wait with you until you fall asleep. Then when you wake up in the morning... this will all be over. Alright?’ He could feel Sarah staring at him. He knew that he was making promises he couldn’t necessarily keep. ‘We’re gonna see you tomorrow, okay?’

It was like his words had reminded Les that it was the middle of the night, and that he was standing in his pyjamas, because he let out a badly stifled yawn and finally nodded.

‘Please don’t die, you guys.’

Davey pulled him into a hug, pressing his cheek to the top of his head. He could die tonight. They could all die tonight.

‘We’re gonna be fine.’

He let Sarah hug a watery-eyed Les and watched as he joined the rest of the first years being evacuated. Jack, who had been talking with the other D.A. kids, came up behind Davey and silently took his hand, squeezing it in an attempt at comforting him. Davey turned to him.

‘Do you know what they need us to do?’

‘They’re saying Harry needs to find this... thing, and You-Know-Who is sending Death Eaters in to get him. We have to hold them off, and if that doesn’t work, we need to knock them out.’

‘And if that doesn’t work?’

‘It will.’ He sounded grimly determined but his face said otherwise.

‘Don’t you dare leave my sight, okay?’

They joined the Order in fanning outwards to protect the perimeter of the castle, casting a shield charm and watching with sick anticipation as the Death Eaters neared. Their last moment of peace came under the blue light of the shield, a few long seconds of eye contact and a silent agreement to fight for each other, and for themselves, as well as for the greater good of their world.

When the shield started to disintegrate Davey wanted to grab Jack’s hand, as soon as it became clear that they were actually going to have to fight people, but he knew duelling with one hand clasped in your boyfriend’s hand was as shitty an idea as it was appealing. Davey would remember this fleeting thought as he searched desperately for Jack later that night.

They had been okay. At first. Watching each others’ backs, warning each other when someone came, or a flying chunk of stone or brick was headed for them. They ran back towards the middle of the castle, knowing that this was where the Death Eaters would be coming in, where their side needed the biggest concentration of fighters. A crowd of students ran in all directions both towards and away from trouble, and it was into this crowd that Jack disappeared. 

For the few seconds Davey still had him in sight, he could see that Jack had darted over to help Race, who looked to be duelling a Death Eater through a broken rib or worse, one hand clutched across his stomach as the other fired spells. He started to follow but spotted another enemy over the shoulder of a Gryffindor who looked far too young to be fighting, unaware that a Death Eater was preparing to fire a spell into her back. He shot a stupefying spell at the Death Eater, who blocked it with too much ease and looked up at Davey with a pure, irrational hatred.

They started duelling and he had to push thoughts of Jack aside, had to focus on disarming this murderer. The girl who he had saved helped him and together they managed to overpower him, not in killing but in hitting him at once with a stunning spell and body bind, and then a disarming spell which knocked his wand out of his hand. Davey conjured some ropes to keep him from hurting anyone and the student helping him levitated him to an alcove.

And then there was always someone to duel. There seemed to be millions of them, but there were millions of students too - spells flew in all directions and all Davey could do was help out and jump in where he could. It felt like they were winning, but only just, like swimming but keeping their heads only an inch above water. For each knocked out Death Eater, however, there was another student - knocked out, that is, or worse. But there was time to mourn the premature loss of life later on.

It was physically and mentally demanding and it was draining him fast. There was so much to worry about, from the death eaters standing before him to the fact that the castle itself was more than vulnerable, it was being hacked at by imperiused giants, walls were literally being blasted away - not even to mention the fact that ninety per cent of Davey’s loved ones were somewhere in this battlefield and he couldn’t see them, couldn’t reassure himself and yet couldn’t focus too much on all the danger they were in because he had to be aware of the danger _he_ was in, had to keep alert so he could defend himself rather than get caught up in what might be happening to his friends.

When Voldemort called the one hour armistice Davey was locked in a duel. The Death Eater before him had shot multiple curses in his direction that he’d managed to either dodge or reflect. A near miss of a _crucio_ reminded him that these people weren’t just out to kill the students, they were here to damage them, to make it hurt, use them as ammunition in the vendetta against Harry. He kept his wand aloft as Voldemort’s voice filled the space.

_You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured._

The Death Eaters disapparated straight away and there was a moment of dense silence before people sprang into action. Davey realised with a jolt that he was relatively unscathed so ran to help those near him. First, a kid he knew from Herbology, who lay prone by the wall, stirring feebly, pale, muttering. Davey waved over a stricken professor to help him carry the student into the Great Hall. His mind raced a mile a minute. He was desperate to find and take stock of eveyone - Sarah, Katherine, Race, Spot, Specs, Albert, Jack, Jack, _Jack._

But he knew that already he was one of the lucky ones. He was alive and uninjured, so he needed to help. He had the whole hour to find Jack.

As he lay the student on a table in the hall he felt two hands land on his shoulders and he turned, ecstatic with relief to see his sister staring at him. They hugged tight and she spoke through tears.

‘I’m fine, Kath’s fine, she’s a little beat up but alive - and you’re okay, you’re okay, right?’

‘I’m okay.’ He rested his head on her shoulder for just a few seconds and let the relative stillness of the moment wash over him. The night was far from over but they were at least guaranteed this next hour. He stepped back and spoke, hesitant because saying the words made them real, but unable to think about anything else. ‘I don’t know where Jack is.’ A lump rose in his throat. Sarah squeezed his arm.

‘He’s here somewhere. Come on.’

They headed back out to help bring in the injured and the casualties. Familiar faces from class were now grey and lifeless, some eyes still open, staring up at him emptily. He continued repressing the emotions that were screaming to be felt, the anxiety and panic, the grief, but it was getting harder with every minute that he looked around and didn’t see Jack. It didn’t take long for the uninjured to clear the entrance hall and nearby corridors of bodies, and soon most of their circle had collected in a corner of the Great Hall, resting up, assessing injuries, sharing stories.

One notable absence.

Davey sat at the edge of the group, scanning his eyes over the hall. People had stopped coming in. He’d sat down because he thought that if he was looking everywhere for Jack, Jack might be looking everywhere for him, and they could be running around in circles for hours. But waiting for Jack to find him was a new kind of torture. He ached to get back up and go look, but where? From next to him Sarah eyed him cautiously as she cleaned up a wound on Katherine’s face. He turned to his friends, his miraculously alive friends.

‘When did you guys last see him?’

‘I saw him in the entrance hall,’ Specs offered tentatively. ‘Couple of hours ago, now. He was helping Race.’

‘That’s where I lost him.’ Davey turned around. Race was sitting on the table, cradling Spot’s head in his lap. Spot had been a little too close to one of the blasts that ripped through the courtyard, and had been sent flying through the air, colliding head first with a stone pillar. Carried into the Great Hall by Charlie Weasley, he had given them all a scare, none more so than Race, who sprinted forward to meet him.

The rest of them had watched, sick with anticipation, as he spoke to Charlie, appearing to be frantically trying to assess Spot’s condition, putting an ear to his chest and touching his face, visibly sagging when Spot’s eyes flickered open for just a second. He took him from Charlie and carried him to where they were sitting, tears unabashedly streaming down his face, and lay him on the table.

‘He’s concussed, just concussed, he’s fine, he’s alive,’ he’d stated aloud, mostly to himself.

Spot drifted in and out of consciousness as the hour past. Race stroked his hair as he tried to think where he had last seen Jack.

‘He was only there for about a minute. He helped me with that guy and then he was gone again - I - I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t remember exactly.’

‘I saw him heading outside, I think,’ Katherine piped up quietly. ‘He was trying to protect these kids from the giants. Him and a couple of other guys, they disarmed some of them - but like Specs said, it feels like a long time ago now.’

‘He was with me.’ Spot spoke up for the first time. All eyes landed on him. His eyes were still closed, voice croaking. Davey leaned in to hear. ‘When they blew us up. He was right by me.’ Panic boiled up inside him. ‘They shoulda found him when they found me.’ He could feel bile rising in his throat. He stood up.

‘He’s still out there.’

‘Davey, we don’t know that.’ Sarah couldn’t keep the nerves out of her voice.

‘Then where is he?’

‘I - He might be...’

‘I can’t just wait here, I’m sorry.’ They were running out of time. In ten minutes the shit would hit the fan again and if he didn’t have his hands on his boyfriend by then - it didn’t bear thinking about. He tried and tried to push the thoughts away, tried to make himself stay rational, stay calm, but the more time passed the less likely a safe return seemed. His mind kept landing on the dozens of dead he had already seen. He and Jack were just two of hundreds of fighters, no different from the kids who had been killed. It was too feasible that Jack could be gone. They weren’t special, and his luck had to run out sometime.

The fresh air of the courtyard hit him like a punch in the face. There was no-one else around. Piles of rubble surrounded him and he stared at each one, as though he could somehow figure out if a person was buried there. He pulled out his wand and began levitating chunks of rubble away, pretending that he didn’t realise this would have already been done. His heart stopped as he unearthed a cloak, and he summoned it to him, turning it over in his arms. It bore a Hufflepuff badge. Not Jack’s. But someone else’s.

He collapsed to his knees and the sob that had been threatening finally ripped out of him. Their future together seemed to evaporate, their apartment, those fuzzy daydreams of standing next to each other at the oven or falling asleep on the couch together. He’d never hear Jack’s laugh again, or feel the warmth of his hands, never see his eyes crinkle in a smile reserved just for him. Crutchie would be crushed. So would Les - so would everyone. Jack was invincible, he was meant to be...

Sarah stood at the edge of the courtyard, watching her brother.

‘ _Davey_!’

He either didn’t hear or ignored her. She walked forward to meet him, crouching down and resting a hand on his back.

‘Kid. We got him.’

Davey looked up, perplexed. ‘What?’

She grinned at him, watery-eyed. ‘He’s fine.’ She stood up and offered a hand to help him up. A fresh wave of sobs wracked Davey and he clamped a hand over his mouth to try and stem them. Jack was fine. He needed to see it to believe it.

Sarah led him back to the Great Hall. The atmosphere was starting to buzz again as the hour concluded, a collective anxiety palpable in the air, a long line of dead down the middle of the room. And then Jack. Sitting with their friends, staring out into the hall, hair white with concrete dust, a nasty red graze on his forehead. Somehow Davey still didn’t trust that he was actually there.

He stumbled forward to meet him, Jack looking up at the last second and rising with a choked sob. They collided, arms tight round each other, squeezing too hard, checking that they were real. When they broke apart they rested their foreheads together and Davey’s hands found Jack’s cheek, the back of his head, his chest. Jack spoke first.

‘Sorry if I scared ya.’

It was such a completely ludicrous and _Jack_ thing to say that Davey had to laugh, the first time in what felt like months.

‘I forgive you.’ And he smiled, and Jack smiled, and for the next thirty seconds before the armistice was broken, they were perfect.

 

Six Months Later

Sarah and Katherine liked to joke that they were taking one for the team and getting married so everyone had a night to dress up, dance, and smile after the atrocities of the battle, but no mistakes could be made as they spun together on the dancefloor that this came from anything but love. Their wedding, something of a rush job, happened in a tent in Katherine’s garden, enchanted lanterns casting the inside in an amber glow against the darkening night, the air full of music, guests full of butterbeer. 

The night of the battle, Jack had been knocked out in the same explosion as Spot, but only for a couple of minutes. He regained consciousness with a jolt as he remembered what the fuck was actually happening, and forced himself back up to fight. Before he had a chance to kick any ass through his misty headache, he spotted two first years huddled in a corner, having evaded evacuation maybe by accident, maybe because like Les, they thought they wanted to fight. 

He ran over and urged them back inside, trying his best to shield their tiny forms with his body, pushing them towards the staircases, knowing that the Room of Requirement was the only place they could be safe and terrified that danger waited for them on the way. The halls were suspiciously quiet the further they got from the Great Hall, too quiet to feel like a refuge, but encouraging a tentative relaxation. He should have known that Death Eaters would be patrolling, trying to stop kids leaving the castle, but was too preoccupied with getting the kids out of danger he couldn’t think of anywhere else to take them.

He shouted instructions to them as he duelled the Death Eater who was tasked with guarding the room, at this point only caring if they got away. They disappeared through the tapestry as Voldemort’s voice boomed to announce the armistice, and he let down his guard a second too early, leaving himself vulnerable to a stupefying spell that pushed him back out of consciousness and lying on the third floor corridor until he was found by a professor doing a last rounds of the castle fifty minutes later. 

The sick confusion and utter cluelessness as to the whereabouts of Davey and everyone else was one he remembered every single day. That agonising walk to the Great Hall where everyone apart from Davey sat waiting for him. His whole community thrown up into a dead-unless-proven-alive situation. It was hard to suggest that anything positive might have come from that night, but it underlined for a lot of people how profound the love they felt for one another was. He didn’t think Race and Spot had left each other’s sides since, and every morning, as the memory of the battle grew a tiny bit dimmer, he made a point of letting Davey know how grateful he was for their existence. They had moved in together almost straight away, propelled by the urge to look after each other twenty-four seven. Jack had Davey’s ring hidden in the back of his nightstand, but wasn’t about to steal Sarah and Katherine’s thunder. Besides, they were only kids, and they could finally trust that they had all the time in the world. 

He sat with Les at the side of the dancefloor, enchanting napkins into obscene shadow puppets to make the kid laugh. The music changed, an upbeat dance number transforming into a slow ballad, and he looked around for Davey as couples around the room drew together. 

Davey crossed the room to find him, having sat out the last song because no-one needed to see him try and get down. He’d been at the drinks table pouring himself liquid courage when an old professor had roped him into a careers talk, but when the song changed, he had to excuse himself and find his love. He grinned, knowing how cheesy it all was but letting himself indulge anyway, as he approached Jack and held out a hand.

‘May I?’ 

Jack beamed back, standing up. ‘If you’ll excuse me, Les, I have to go make googly eyes at your brother for a few minutes.’ Les pulled a face and ran to find someone less gross. 

They swayed together, chests touching, cheeks resting against each other, a moment of complete calm, warmed from the inside by contentedness and the knowledge that they were going to be fine after all. 


End file.
